Establishment of a Child Support Order

The Office of Child Support Services will file a motion to establish a support order
for a family receiving FIP Benefits or a custodial parent who completes
an application for services. The non-custodial parent will be served by
a constable or sheriff at their place of residence or at any other location.
Failure to appear at RI Family Court may result in a body attachment being
served.

Both the custodial and
non-custodial parent will be called as witnesses at a court hearing. Either party may retain
legal counsel to legally represent them. Legal counsel for the Office of Child Support Services represents the state.

Calculate Child Support

The State of Rhode Island has adopted the income shares model to
determine the weekly child support order. It is based upon the philosophy
that children are entitled to the standard of living based upon both
parents monthly income. In order to calculate a monthly child support
order, the Court will look at the following:

1. Weekly gross income of both parents before
taxes and before any other deductions. Living expenses are generally not
deducted from gross income. Gross income includes income from all sources
including workers compensation, temporary disability benefits and social
security disability benefits. Benefits received from the Family Independence
Program are not considered income.

2. Mandatory deductions include:

Health insurance premiums

Pre existing child support payments

Support of additional children

Please note that the Court may consider the following discretionary deductions:
retirement benefits, life insurance payments, extraordinary medical expenses,
income tax adjustments, and payment of original marital debts. The deductions
are then subtracted from the gross income of the parent.

3. Add both parent's adjusted gross income together, refer to the guideline
chart to determine the amount of monthly child support recommended for
the number of children that the parties have in common. That amount
is placed on the guideline worksheet.
If there are day care expenses for which the custodial parent has proof,
the Court may add that amount to the monthly recommended child support
amount.

4. Determine each parent' s percentage share of
the total monthly child support order.

5. The non-custodial parent is then responsible to pay the % of that
monthly amount. The monthly order is broken down into a weekly order by
dividing again by 4.3333 .

6. Finally the non-custodial parent is ordered to pay that weekly amount
by wage withholding. The weekly order will automatically be deducted from
the parent's check.